Influenza and Respiratory Viruses

Amid an unusually severe U.S. flu season dominated by a new H3N2 subclade K, the Trump administration and CDC have shifted the pediatric flu shot from a universal recommendation to “shared clinical decision‑making,” prompting providers to pause mass vaccination clinics and drawing sharp criticism from pediatricians and advocacy groups. The policy change comes as CDC burden estimates have surged (ranging into the millions of illnesses and, by some counts, up to about 15 million illnesses with hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths), outpatient and hospital flu activity hitting record highs in many states, and experts warning the circulating K variant is partially mismatched to this season’s vaccine even though vaccination still lessens severe disease.